Can Iran win 2022 World Cup ticket on Thursday?

Iran will host Iraq on Thursday at Tehran's Azadi Stadium in a match that many expect to secure Iran's ticket to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

In Group A of the third round of qualifiers, Iran will fight for the three points needed for the Qatar World Cup.

Dragan Skocic's team now stand first in the table with 16 points from six matches, which is considered a remarkable record for the Croatian by many experts inside and outside Iran.

South Korea are the next hopefuls with 14 points and next stand the UAE and Lebanon with six and five points respectively. Iraq are the fifth team in the ranking with four points.

As the table shows, the prospects of winning direct quotas for Iran and South Korea are much higher than others. However, other teams will not back down and will fight to at least win the third-place to keep their hopes alive for the play-off stage. And Iraq are certainly a serious challenger.

The team have a long history of creating problems for Iran in the past decade and the most bitter memories for the Iranian fans go back to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia where the Iraqi team eliminated Iran in the quarterfinals thanks to penalty shootouts after a dramatic 3-3 draw.

And that was like a spell which ran for years until Skocic's team managed to break it with a 1-0 victory in June 2021 in the second round of the 2022 qualifiers.

Historically speaking, Iran have won 17 matches and Iraq have recorded six wins in the direct encounters while seven matches have ended in a draw.

The last time the two teams locked horns go back to early September 2021 in the very same qualifiers where Team Melli downed Iraq 3-0.

True, it is so hard to predict the result of a football match, however, after taking a closer look at earlier results and a team's character, spirit, and performance, most of which is available through Google or are particularly well covered at major betting sites like bwin do, can stake their bets with a more informed and safer head.

Under the helm of Dragan Skocic, Iran have not lost even one game so far, registering 12 victories and one draw. One cannot neglect the effect Skocic has had over the team but neither can we set aside the talented Iranian players who put their all in the games; players such as Mehdi Taremi, Sardar Azmoun, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Vahid Amiri, and many others who have proven their true value and commitment for their national team.

But Skocic may not be able to use some of his players on Thursday. Mehdi Taremi is stranded in Turkey due to heavy snowfalls and Sardar Azmoun is still in the UAE as his early COVID test was positive. Reports indicate that Taremi may arrive in Iran early on Thursday and also it is being said that Azmoun's last PCR test was negative and can join the camp. But we should wait and see whether they can do so and whether Skocic opts to use them or not.

Of course, there are plenty of good players that can fill the vacancy in the front line with Skocic having choices such as Mehdi Ghayedi, Karim Ansarifard, Kaveh Rezaei, AllahyarSayyadmanesh, and Shahab Zahedi.

Of the other features of the Thursday match is that it will be held with Iranian fans back in the stadium for the first time after some two years due to the COVID-19. Although just 10% of the 100,000 seated Azadi stadium will host spectators, that is also a good sign and can positively affect the Iranian national team's performance.

Team Melli will next meet the UAE on Feb. 1 which will also be staged in Tehran.